When Your Past Sins and Your Faults Torture You

This comes from Faith Alone, a daily devotional composed of Martin Luther's sermons, essays, lectures, letters, and "table talks," the spontaneous comments Luther made over dinner to visitors and students who took notes. The Scriptural bases of the devotion is Hebrews 2:14. I love this:

Because he is God's Son, [Christ] was able to reclaim us and free us from our sins when he shed his blood. If we believe this, we can rub it in the devil's face whenever he tries to torment or terrify us with our sins. This will quickly defeat the devil. He will be forced to retreat and leave us alone.

Here's an illustration that can help us understand how Christ defeated the devil by dying. The fishing hook, which is Christ's divinity, was concealed by the earthworm, which is Christ's humanity. The devil swallowed both when Christ died and was buried. But Christ's divinity ripped open the devil's stomach so that it couldn't hold Christ anymore. The devil had to throw him up. The devil ate something that proved to be fatal. This truth gives us wonderful comfort. Just as the devil couldn't hold onto Christ in death, so the devil can't hold on to us who believe in Christ.

[Above: Martin Luther, Reformer of the Church, 1483-1546]